The Descendants
by deadghost
Summary: Sequel to Gangs of Edtropolis. 200 years after the Warlord landed on a planet and colonised it, the descenants of Ed, Edd and Eddy must now fight evil corporations, secret societies and a cyborg army.
1. Intro

The Revolution 

Intro

(A/N) This is a spin off of Gangs of Edtropolis. You don't have to read that to understand this, but it helps.

After the Great Exodus back in 2009, the spaceship: Warlord, landed on and colonised a planet, they called Terra. Now in 2279, that planet was now almost completely populated, the technology bought over by Warlord evolved into Bioengineering and Biomodification. Parents-to-be could get their child changed if they didn't want any certain feature before it was even born. Bioengineering was common but really expensive. Biomodification however was virtually unknown, it was reserved for military purposes only. A branch of the government was in charge of this, Wartech. Biomods were still fairly new and the only people capable of being modified where specially trained from a young age, 9-11 years of age. There where few able to be modified, you had to have a certain body make up or else the biomods were rejected and the patient died. Special schools were set up to find those capable to be modified.

The children at these schools, if showing superior intelligence, where given neural biomods, this was basically like having a computer inserted in your brain and allowed the user to download info into their minds and then upload out of their minds into a computer. If a child showed the correct physical make up they were given biomods in their arms, legs or torso. These gave increased strength, speed or protection.

The decedents of Ed, Edd and Eddy were among the chosen to be modified. They shared the same names in respect of their ancestors.

Ed was given an arm and torso mod, this made him strong enough to lift up a car with ease (A/N: I know Ed could already do this, but let's imagine he couldn't, just for the sake of the story:)) and almost bullet proof.

Edd was given a neural implant, one third of his brain was now a computer, he had a wire that he could plug into any computer and download anything. He also had a neural interface, so he could see his computer screen like a desktop and no one else could see.

Eddy was given leg and torso mods, this made him fast enough to out run a motorbike and radiation proof.

But because Biomodification was a new science there were some flaws, Ed, Edd and Eddy were ok, but earlier test subjects were left seriously messed up. Most of them died soon after the mods failed, but some lived. There were also extremists, these people didn't just get mods, they were almost entirely cybernetic, they wore nano-suits so even their skin wasn't natural. These people were called the Genetoo.

Ed, Edd and Eddy sat in their room at the Academy. The Academy was one of the Wartech schools for finding students to modify. They were chosen and given special rooms of their own, separate from the regular students. The academy was Egyptian themed and had Hieroglyphics carved into the walls and felt like a real Egyptian palace, but with electricity, proper plumbing and carpeting.

Edd was downloading a new song onto his internal computer, Ed was watching a horror movie on the TV (funny how things like that get passed down isn't it?) and Eddy was ogling one of his many Porn magazines.

The electric door to their room slide open and a Jacob Smyth, the director of Stratnigrad Academy walked in, Eddy threw the magazine out the window in a split second, RS didn't seem to notice. E,EnE stood at attention, "as you were"he said, E,En E sat back down, "Good evening students" said the director, "I would like to inform you that several new pupils will be joining you on this apartment block", Ed, Edd and Eddy's apartment was in the same building as the school and biomod lab. They lived in the middle of the building, the school was below them and the lab above.

There were several unused apartments on their floor. The apartments were nice, they had a kitchen, three bedrooms and a living room. The kitchen was more just a corner of the living room with a counter, stools, oven and fridge. The apartment had navy blue carpets and light blue walls, there was a projector on the ceiling showing a horror movie on the opposite wall. "Oh really, where they from" asked Eddy "They are from Newer York, Riverdale and Illuminus City." replied the Director "Looks like we're gonna need to break 'em in" said Eddy pompously.

"Indeed. They will be arriving by helicopter in a few hours" said the Director, "I will expect you to be by the helipads in your best clothes in 4 hours." said the Director. He walked out the door and it slid shut behind him. Eddy ran to the window and looked at the ground some 60 floors down. "Bloody great. That was the newest edition" said Eddy trying to see his porno that he had flung out. "Oh well. I'll have get a new one. I'll be back in an hour" said Eddy as he put on his leather jacket and walked into the hallway.

Unlike the original Eddy, this Eddy was a smooth talker and had many allies. He had a network of contacts that could get him anything he needed, from porno magazines to illegal weapons. One such contact lived in the building's basement. This is where Eddy got his adults only literature from.

The new Edd was also different the original. This one had a more muscular body and had a better immune system. He was still intelligent and understanding but could defend himself against most attackers.

Ed had changed the least. He still lacked a chin and had little in the way brains but remained a gentle giant. "I can't wait 'till those new guys arrive huh, Double D?" said Ed as he drew his attention away from the movie, "Indeed Ed. I will be nice to see some new faces round here" replied Edd.

(A/N) Thank you for reading. I'll update soon and when I get some reviews.


	2. The New Guys

The New Guys

At 9:00pm three helicopters flew over the top of Stratnigrad, the home of Ed, Edd and Eddy, and landed on the helipads on the top the Wartech school. It was snowing lightly and the snow crunched beneath the Ed's feet as walked out onto the roof.

As ordered, the Ed's were wearing their best clothes.

Eddy didn't really have any "good clothes". Instead he wore a pair of black Nike trainers, a pair of dark blue jeans, a black shirt and a denim jacket.

Edd was wearing a black tuxedo and a black shirt underneath with a red tie.

Ed, not knowing much about appropriate clothing, was wearing an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt with a white vest underneath, a pair of 3/4s and a pair of sandals. Ed's torso biomod made him resistant against heat and cold.

The three helicopters had different paint jobs showing which academy they came from. The one from Newer York was red with white stripes, in the middle was the symbol, a shield with two crossing swords behind it, on the shield were the big, red letters, NY.

The Riverdale helicopter was light blue on the top half and dark blue on the bottom half. The symbol was two rivers entwined. Riverdale was a rich city and the Academy was girls only.

The Illuminus City helicopter was completely black. The symbol was a stone man holding up his arms with a star in his hands. Illuminus City Academy was sports centred and had many jocks.

The doors from the helicopters opened and a ladder came down. From the Newer York helicopter came a bald kid with a big head and a single tooth overbite, following him came two smaller children, no older than 9. They looked delicate and walked without the confidence that people with biomods had. They were a boy and a girl. The boy had silvery blonde hair and wore an aqua green sweater and white trousers with a belt. The girl had orange hair and wore a pink jacket and jeans.

From the Riverdale chopper came two girls. One was a tall blonde, she was wearing a tight white long sleeve shirt with a black vest over it, navy blue jeans and black low-tops. The other girl was blue haired and wore a Nano suit. The suit was skin tight and dark blue, there were several ridges along her ribs, but otherwise it completely smooth. Her whole body, except for her head, was covered by the suit. Nano suits were rare and expensive, so this girl clearly came from a rich family. She also had an unnatural beauty, so she was also probably bioengineered whilst her mother was pregnant with her.

From the Illuminus City chopper came two tall boys. One was slightly taller than the other. Edd noticed that one had a dark blue vein that came up his neck then split into several smaller ones near his eye. This was not a vein, but in fact a wire. Only people modified within the last two years don't have this, they have a much smaller wire in their spines that can't seen. The tall boy had dark blue hair that seemed to have never been combed. He wore a pair of jeans and a yellow shirt with a red strip going across the middle and a black leather jacket.

The other boy was wearing a camouflage outfit with the top unbuttoned, underneath was a grey shirt with the Illuminus City Academy logo on it. He wore a red cap with a few red hairs sticking out the back.

Behind the students stood their own Directors. The Stratnigrad Director stood forward and greeted the new students and their Directors. "Greetings to all. Welcome to the Stratnigrad Academy." he said warmly, "I am Jacob Smyth, the Director of this fine school" he continued, "On behalf of the city of Stratnigrad, Welcome" he finished as he tilted his head forward in a bow.

The other Directors bowed back in a similar fashion.

"I will leave you to introduce yourselves and get acquainted with the other students. However, it is late and would advise that you leave all business until morning. I will show you to your new rooms" said the Director. He motioned towards the lift next to Ed, Edd and Eddy.

The new students removed their bags or suitcases from the helicopters and walked passed the Eds. As they walked passed they shook the Eds' hands before getting in the lift and descending. The other Directors got back into their helicopters and returned to their own schools, leaving the Eds alone on the roof.

"Well, they seem nice enough" said Edd to break the ice as they waited for the lift to return. "Yeah, but did you check out the ass on that Riverdale chick, DAMN" said Eddy, "You and your one track mind" replied Edd rolling his eyes.

There was an awkward silence.

"We should check out these guys' backgrounds, you know, just to make sure they ain't hiding anything" suggested Eddy, "EDDY! That would be an invasion of privacy and morally wrong" said Edd surprised at Eddy "besides, it would require hacking into closely guarded files on some of the most secure networks on the planet" said Edd, "yeah, that would be way too hard for someone with as little skill as you, huh" replied Eddy trying to annoy Edd, "oh please, I can hack that mainframe in two minutes" replied Edd defending his rep, "yeah, course you could" replied Eddy casually, "I can and I will, as soon as we get back to our room I'll get you every file on these guys" said Edd angrily.

"Cool" replied Eddy, "I look forward to it". Edd stood there for a second, proud that that had shut Eddy up, then realization sank in. "You did it again, didn't you" said Edd calmly, "Yup" replied Eddy with a grin on his face. "I hate you when you that. AND WHERE THE HELL IS THAT DAMN LIFT??".

Once the Eds had made it back to the warmth of their apartment, Edd got on his PC and plugged himself in. His eyes lost focus and a vacant expression took over his face as his mind delved into the Internet. He mumbled a few times as he hacked onto the schools' data bases, small words or sentences like "firewall...passed...redirect to file C... transferring data".

Eventually his eyes regained focus as he returned to his body. On his PC screen were the files of the new students. "There, Happy?" said Edd to Eddy, "yeah, now let's see who we're dealing with" said Eddy pushing Edd of his seat. "OK, let's see who blondie is" said Eddy as he found her file. "Alright, her name is Nazz Williams, she's 15, same as us, one of the best students in Riverdale blah blah blah, she's got a stealth biomod, invisible to humans and machines. From a rich family, no brothers or sisters" read out Eddy.

"Ok next is the blue haired one. Her name is Marie Kanker, same age as blondie, got a ..." Eddy paused as he saw the unusual biomod " ... a LEECH DRONE". "Leech drone?" said Edd as he heard this, "Yeah, well that's weird" said Eddy.

A Leech Drone is a mod that allows the user to break down organic matter to help repair injuries. It is uncommon and only used by military medics who can store the matter to help wounded soldiers, not to be expected from an upper class, well protected girl. "What else does she have?" asked Edd as he looked over Eddy's shoulder. "She also got an eye mod, so she can see through walls and has a zoom"

"What about the little kids, huh guys" asked Ed, Edd and Eddy were surprised Ed was paying enough attention to realize what was going on. "Yeah, well the little girl's name is Sarah Daniels, she's 6 years old and is unmodified, still fresh out of regular school", her little friend is a, Jimmy Robertson, 5 turning 6 later this year, again, unmodified, and lastly baldielocks, Johnny Smith 8 years old, he's got pre-biomod nanites in him, scheduled to be modified a month from now.

Nanites are the microscopic machines that run the larger machines in the user, they are the fuel behind biomods, after the biomods have been placed in the user, nanites are injected and they activate the biomod. Pre-biomod nanites soften the tissue and prepare the Central Nervous System for the biomod.

"Next we have the jocks" said Eddy as he open the ICA file, "Ok, the red head is Kevin Miller, world class bi-athlete and and multi-award winning swimmer. He's got bot control and EMP blast mods" Bot control is a brain mod that allows the user to control security drones, cameras and turrets.

"Then there's the guy with the wiring. One Rolf Aqabar, an Egyptian exchange student. Wow, this guy has a bunch of biomods, most of them black market (Black market Biomods are like normal mods but much more powerful and effect different areas of the body. They are illegal in most countries but can be found in developing countries. The main traders of Black market biomods are the Genetoo.) "serious? Like what?" asked Edd, who had always been interested in BLBM "well he's got a Corrosion mod in his right arm (a mod that when the user touches metal it will rust incredibly fast), in his left he's got a Corrupter mod (a mod that whenever the user touches living tissue, nanites jump onto it and destroy the cells like cancer), he's got a Viral mod at the top of his spine (when the user plugs himself into a computer he can upload a computer virus, normal hackers can't do this because it requires them to carry the virus which would destroy them.)

"Cool, I can't wait to meet these guys properly tomorrow" said Ed happily, "Yeah, me too. But don't let them know we have their files, act like you don't know them" said Edd, "Sure, no problem. I'm an expert liar" said Eddy "well I'm gonna hit the hay" said Eddy as he stretched his arms "good night".

(A/N) Thank you for reading, I'll update if I get more reviews, See ya.


	3. Welcome to Stratnigrad

Welcome to Stratnigrad

The sun rose over the city of Stratnigrad. The freshly laid snow shone blindingly bright. Several birds flew out from a frozen tree and small clumps of snow fell from it. Inside the Academy, the occupants awoke from their rest.

Edd's internal clock woke him at the exact time everyday, 6:00am. Ed and Eddy were still asleep, they would be until at least 10:00, it was a Saturday after all. Edd really appreciated the early hours, it was his time. Everyone else was still asleep, so the whole building was quiet except for the gentle hum of computers.

Edd got changed, he wore a red shirt and combats, he wore a black long sleeve shirt over that. He put on his hiking boots, he didn't hike but he liked the boots so he wore them anyway. Edd stepped quietly out of the room and walked along the hallway. He stepped out onto the balcony and inhaled the freezing air. He exhaled and looked at the steam coming from his mouth. "um, excuse me" came a voice from behind him.

Edd turned around and saw the blue haired girl from Riverdale. "Good morning, how can I help you" asked Edd smiling, the girl smiled back, "sorry, I was looking for the gym" asked the girl, "oh, yeah. I was on my way there myself" Edd replied.

Ed led the girl to the elevator, they went up to the gym level. The gym was fairly basic and not too large. It was two storeys high, the first level was a basketball court and weights and the second floor was a track for running laps. There was also a small medical room on the second floor, just for measuring performance and in case of any accidents. The showers, lockers and drink dispensers were on the first floor down a corridor, in a different room.

"So, this is our gym, it's got everything you'd need" said Edd showing the girl the gym. "I didn't catch your name last night by the way" said Edd, "It's Marie, Marie Kanker" she replied, blushing slightly, "That's a nice name" Edd said, trying to look as if he didn't already know. "Thanks, well, I'm going to get changed now" said Marie, she headed off to the girls changing rooms. "She seems nice" Edd thought. Edd got changed and started doing weights.

Several hours later...

Eddy crawled out of bed and headed straight for the on suite bathroom. His body was on autopilot, and it turned on the shower, got undressed and got into the shower all without Eddy opening his eyes. Eddy slumped down in the bath as the shower poured water over him. After five minutes of this Eddy woke up. He stood up with exaggerated difficulty and got out of the shower. He got dressed in the same clothes he was wearing last night and went over to the fridge to get some breakfast. He made himself a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal and ate them, still half asleep.

As Eddy half heartedly consumed his breakfast, Edd returned. "Good morning Eddy. How are you this fine winters day?" greeted Edd happily, "goomorffdoobla" mumbled Eddy. "Cereal and coffee a breakfast does not make Eddy" said Edd looking at Eddy's meal. "If you could make something better, I'd eat it" said Eddy before yawning. Edd got out a two frying pans ands began frying up some bacon and eggs.

Soon, the aroma of sizzling fats and oils awoke Ed. "Hmm, morning guys" said Ed as he got out of bed and wondered over to the kitchen corner. Edd dished out the food and Ed and Eddy ate it happily. "Ain't you gonna join us Double D?" asked Eddy noticing that Edd wasn't eating. "I've already had my breakfast today. Besides, that stuff will kill you one day" explained Edd. Ed looked at one of the slices of bacon, "Yeah, well it's worth it" said Ed as he ate the bacon.

After the Eds had had their breakfast Ed and Eddy left for the lounge, leaving Edd to clean up. "How do I let this happen to me?" Edd thought aloud. Eddy and Ed walked along the corridor towards the lift. They descended down to the lounge floor and headed for the console room. Eddy started shuffling through a pile of games while Ed began playing a racing game on the Playstation. "When are they gonna get some more games, I've played all of these" complained Eddy and continued to shuffle through the games. "I don't mind Eddy, these are classic games" said Ed and began playing his favorite game, Metal Gear Solid.

Two people entered the room. Ed and Eddy looked at the new arrivals. It was the two unmodified children from Newer York. "Can we help you?" Eddy asked dismissively. The girl stepped forward and stated "Me and Jimmy want to play, so GET LOST!" she yelled rudely. Eddy jumped to his feet and walked right up to her so their faces were only inches apart, "and who's gonna make us" Eddy demanded. The girl kneed Eddy in the groin and he collapsed where he stood. Seeing this Ed jumped away from the TV and dropped the controller.

The girl walked over Eddy as he lay on the floor, her friend followed behind giggling. Ed walked around them carefully. He picked up Eddy, who was still holding his crotch, afraid to let go. Ed left the console room and carried Eddy back to their room. Edd put the last plate in the cupboard when the door slid open and in walked Ed holding Eddy. "What the...? Ed what happened?" asked Edd as he saw Ed with Eddy. "We were the lounge and the little kiddies that arrived last night came in and told us to leave, but Eddy didn't want to, so the little girl kicked him in the goolies" said Ed, "goolies?" said Edd confused, he looked at Eddy still clutching himself for fear it might fall off, "oh right, goolies. OK, well, Eddy you just got owned by a little girl" said Edd, try to hold back laughter, "that was no girl, that was a hell spawn. I saw it in her eyes" said Eddy as he got, uneasily, to his feet.

"Oh come on Eddy, how bad could she have been?" replied Edd. "Trust me on this, no good will come of those two" said Eddy before he went and lay down on his bed. Edd rolled his eyes and went to the library. The library was 17 floors down, near the top of the school section of the building. It was a Saturday, so none of the regular students were in the library. Edd enjoyed these time, he could really get some work done without the distraction of other students. Also, none of the annoying students could bother him, the ones who only come to the library to annoy others or create distractions. Edd hated the years below him, he found them all stupid, annoying and just intolerable, he was happy when they weren't around, they were the only thing that really upset Edd, usually he could deal with anyone, but not them.

Edd entered the library and inhaled deeply, "ahh, the smell of knowledge" he thought. He went and took the book he was studying "The Warlord: Facts and Fiction". He began were he left off, but then he noticed he wasn't alone in the library. On the far end was the student from Illuminus, Rolf Aqabar (pronounced Akbar) Edd remembered. Edd could see, even from this distance, the blue wires coming up his neck and face. Edd remembered a book he had once read, it was about the history of Biomodification. The different types of biomods and groups involved in biomodification. The first attempts at biomodification had terrible failures, patients dieing or left horribly scared or mutilated. Most of them are dead now though, they were cursed with short lifetimes of only a few years after modification. When they invented biomods and nanites huge leaps were made in the field and fatalities almost stopped immediately. But only recently have wires been made so small that they can no longer be seen, most people have fairly visible wires, Rolf must have had his implanted in a developing county where invisible wires were unknown.

"Could all students please report to conference room 12 on floor 40." came a voice over the speakers that littered all over the building. Edd put down his book and headed for the conference room. "Hmm, probably an official welcome and introduction" Edd thought as he descended in the lift.

Eddy removed the bag of ice from his groin and stood up, "come on lumpy, let's get going" said Eddy as he heard the announcement. Ed and Eddy met Edd at the entrance to the conference room, "hey guys" said Edd as he say Ed and Eddy step out of the lift, "hey Double D. So, any idea what the meeting's about?" asked Eddy, "I think it's just an introduction" suggested Edd, "yeah probably" replied Eddy.

The trio entered the large hall, usually used for the normal school's assemblies. In the centre were 10 leather chairs arranged in a circle. Ed, Edd and Eddy sat down on the chairs and waited for the others to arrive, "These are some nice chairs, how come I've never seen 'em before" said Eddy as he admired the fine leather, "Most likely trying to impress our new guests" said Edd, "hey guys, listen!" said Ed as he sat down on the chair and it made a fart sound, Ed and Eddy both burst into laughter while Edd put his face in his palm to hide the smile he trying to control.

The two Riverdale girls entered the room, but Eddy and Ed didn't notice, so the continued to make the humorous sounds. "Stop it you idiots, look who just walked in" whispered Edd. Ed and Eddy looked up and saw the two girls and stopped immediately. Eddy tried to act as he wasn't doing anything, but just looked like an idiot. The two girls sat down on the chairs, Marie sat next to Edd and her friend, Nazz sat next to her. Shortly later the two boys from Illuminus city joined them, the red haired one, Kevin, had sweat marks around his neck and armpits. They both came and sat down sat next the girls. This left only the three Newer York kids.

The director of the Stratnigrad Academy walked in followed by the NY children. They sat down and the director began a speech. "Welcome to the Stratnigrad Academy, we trust you have had time to explore our facilities and get used to the lay out of the building" he said, the new kids nodded back. "Excellent. Well then let me introduce you all to each other." The director stood behind Eddy, "This is Eddy, he's our gambling master. Trust me, never play poker with him" said the Direct, he then moved on to Ed, "This one is Ed, he's not the brightest spark, but he is the tank of our branch. Don't worry he's a gentle giant." "And finally, we have Edd, better known as Double D. He is one the best students we have and a computer expert on a global scale. Quiet a coincidence that all three of our modified students share the same name" finished the director. "I will let you introduce yourselves properly in a minute. But first I must warn, we have received warnings from the authorities that a terrorist organisation may be operating in the area, it is probably just rumours, but keep an eye out for anything suspicious when travelling in the city"

The director then left the students to themselves. Kevin and Rolf returned to the GYM and the NY also left, but the Riverdale girls stayed with the Eds. "So, are there any good shops around here?" asked Nazz, "yeah, there's loads in the trade district" replied Eddy. The trade district was a small area of Stratnigrad that had many shops, the area surrounded the Academy and received a lot of business from all the students. "There's also a night club, Club Vox." suggested Edd. "Also, stay away from the Descender on the east side of town" warned Eddy, "What's the Descender?" asked Marie, "It's a giant lift that takes you down to the lower part of town, you don't wanna go there. It's full of thugs and weirdos" Eddy replied, "I like it there" said Ed happily.

"Well, do you guys want to come with Marie and I. We're going into town and would like some guides" asked Nazz, "Yeah, sure. It'd be out pleasure" Replied Eddy eagerly. "Cool, well, we'll see you by the entrance at about 1:00am" said Nazz, "We'll be there" confirmed Eddy happily.

The two girls left for their rooms, leaving the Eds alone in the hall. "So. What now?" asked Edd, "Supper, back at our place" suggested Eddy, Edd shrugged at the trio began walking back to their apartment.

"So what do you guys think about these supposed terrorists" asked Edd over a bowl of stir-fry chicken. "What about them?" replied Eddy without looking up from his bowl, "Well what do you think they want, what are fighting for, who are they?" asked Edd, "How the hell should I know?" said Eddy annoyed that Edd kept interrupting his eating. "They're probably just a couple of guys who were tired of people ignoring them, so they made some bombs and want money or else they'll blow up a coffee shop or something" said Eddy. "Yeah, but don't the WTO take care those people secretly and quickly" replied Edd, "How do you know they take them out?" asked Eddy, he attention finally drawn away from his meal, "I was bored a while ago, so I hacked their system." said Edd casually.

"Yeah, well don't worry. It's probably nothing serious anyway" said Eddy. He finished his meal and then went to bed.

(A/N) Thanks for reading. Post more comments and I'll update again soon.


	4. On Our Own

On Our Own

(A/N) Thanks to destinationzer0, Thanks for the review, hope you enjoy the latest chapter.

"mmm, why? Yes! I do happen to have a large..." mumbled Eddy in his sleep. Suddenly a loud noise, like thunder, shook the building and awoke Eddy along with the rest of the occupants of the building. Eddy nearly fell out of his bed, some stuff fell off shelves and several objects rattled. The door slid open and a large figure stepped inside Eddy's room, Eddy couldn't make out who it was, his eyes were still adjusting to the surroundings. The figure looked at Eddy laying on his bed and reached out his arm. Eddy quickly sat up and pushed himself to the back of the bed out of reach of the stranger. The stranger moved closer and face came into the light, "What are you doing here...?"

Edd's shot open as the rumble shook the building. "What the hell was that" he thought, he quickly got out of bed and began to dress himself. A second explosion rocked the building, Edd could hear commotion outside his room, Edd put his battle gear on, leather gloves, jacket with a bullet proof vest under it, combats and a utility belt. Edd packed some more clothes into his bag and slung it over his shoulder. As he was about to step out, Edd heard several gun shots. This confirmed his fears, terrorists had invaded the building. Edd grabbed his pistol he hid in a secret compartment.

The person in Eddy's room stepped into the light, "What are you doing here" asked Eddy, "Sorry Eddy, I heard some gun shots and thought some bad stuff was about to go down. So I came to get you, we gotta get out of here" explained Ed, "oh. Yeah, ok, give me a minute to get dressed" said Eddy as he got out of bed and put on his battle gear. Ed was already in his battle gear so he waited outside for Eddy. Edd came around the corner and saw Ed standing outside Eddy's door. "Ed, is Eddy ok?" asked Edd, "Hey Double D, yeah Eddy's fine, he's just getting dressed" replied Ed, he smiled as he recognised Edd. "All students, please evacuate the building. We have been attacked by terrorists. Please make your way to ..." came an announcement over the speakers, it was cut off and replaced by a different voice, "We are the GLA, Global Liberation Army. We have come to free you from the oppressive organisation known as Wartech. They have fooled you and lied to you." came the voice.

The first voice came back on, "The terrorists have seized control of our security systems. All students must be extremely careful when moving through the building" but it was soon cut off again, "If you want to learn the truth, meet us at the old machinery factory in lower Stratnigrad". Several people came around the corner, they were wearing hoods that hid their faces and were carrying pistols. "ED! LOOK OUT!!" yelled Edd as he pushed Ed into Eddy's room. The intruders saw them and opened fire. Edd jumped into Eddy's room and blind fired around the door at the terrorists. They stopped firing. "Eddy! Quick, grab any weapon you have, this ain't gonna be easy" Eddy zipped up his battle suit and pressed a button under his bed. His mirror flipped round, revealing and assortment of weapons. "Damn Eddy, where'd you get all this stuff?" asked Edd, amazed. "Oh, you know, friends" said Eddy before winking at Edd.

"Here, this'll distract 'em, while we escape" said Eddy, chucking Edd and grenade, "don't worry, it's a stun grenade" assured Eddy. Eddy grabbed a mini-Uzi and a Socom MK 23. "You got any weapons Ed?" asked Eddy, "Only this" replied Ed showing Eddy his baton. "Hmm, well that will have to do" said Eddy examining Ed's melee weapon. "Ok double D, on three chuck the grenade" ordered Eddy. "One...two...THREE" he yelled, Edd threw the grenade round the corner. After a brief delay there was a bright flash and an ear splitting noise.

The trio darted out of the room away from the terrorists. As they were running along the corridor one of the terrorists started firing. The bullets flew past the Ed's and hit the walls in front of them, one hit the ceiling, blowing out a light and causing sparks to fly out and land on the Ed's. The Ed's reached the lift at the end of the corridor. The terrorists continued to shoot at them, Eddy pushed the "close doors" button as several hit the doors. The doors closed and Eddy hit the button taking them down to the ground floor and the exit for the Academy. The lift reached the bottom of the Academy and the Ed's stepped out onto the cold streets.

The Academy was located on the upper part of Stratnigrad. Stratnigrad was divided into two parts: Upper and Lower Stratnigrad, the lower part was the original city, it was mostly disused factories and crumbling buildings, but people still lived there. People too poor to move up or criminals laying low were the most common citizens of Lower Stratnigrad. Upper Stratnigrad was built on top of Lower Stratnigrad, held up by large pillars. In most parts of Lower Stratnigrad the city above completely hid the sky, all they saw was the underbelly of Upper Stratnigrad.

Upper Stratnigrad was a clean, safe and rich place, very much the opposite of Lower Stratnigrad, known as the slums by it's citizens.

The Eds walked through the alley that lead them to The Plaza, a rectangle shaped part of the city known as one best places in Stratnigrad. Neon lights shone out, advertising whatever shop they belonged to. Only three were of any interest to the Ed's. Kallum's, a coffee shop, Club Vox and Ruby suits (an apartment complex). The ends walked out of the alley and along the walk. The Plaza was two storeys high, Club Vox and The Academy were on the top floor and the Ruby suits, coffee shop and entrance to the Descender were on the bottom floor.

"So, where to?" asked Edd looking around, "Well, I got a friend in the Ruby suites, I gotta some stuff off him" suggested Eddy, "hmm, I don't know Eddy, you have some dodgy friends" said Edd hesitantly, "No, this guy is different. I've known him for ages, we can trust him" assured Eddy, "Hmm, ok" Edd replied. "Good, follow me" said Eddy, he led the other two Eds to the Ruby suits.

The three entered the building with bright red neon lights saying "Ruby Suites". Eddy strode in acting like he owned the place while Edd and Ed trailed behind him. The room was empty save for the janitor and a receptionist reading a magazine. Eddy walked up to her confidently, she looked up at him, "Hello Eddy" she said dully before returning to her magazine. "Is Jake in tonight" Eddy asked, "Yup, you know where" said replied without looking up. "Come on guys" said Eddy, signaling for them to follow him. The Eds went up three flights of stairs and along a quiet hallway bore arriving outside suite 1336.

Eddy pressed the intercom and waited for a reply, "Hello?" came a voice, "Hey Jake, It's Eddy" said Eddy into the speaker, "Sup Eddy? Hold on I'll buzz you in" replied Jake. The red neon lights that ran along the perimeter of the door turned green and a beep was heard, Eddy pressed a button and the door slid open with a "thwissspk". The three Eds stepped into the apartment. The apartment was nicely decorated, with light blue carpeting and wallpaper, the kitchen had a wooden floor and some expensive appliances. Most of Eddy's "friends" hung around in alleyways or rundown complexes in Lower Stratnigrad.

Jake walked in and greeted Eddy, "Eddy, how are you my friend" he asked opening his arms, "good, good. How are you" replied Eddy, embracing the man in a hug. "Good, business is going smoothly, got some rebels in Gondwana who need arms and ammo" Jake explained. Jake noticed Edd and Ed, "They with you?" asked Jake, "Yup, our place got attacked by terrorists, I was wondering if you could set us up with a place to live for a while?" asked Eddy, "Oh...um...yeah, well I'd love to help you Eddy...but here's the thing: I'm not going to be here for a while and I'm going to be having a lot of business partners here in the next few days and I don't really want a bunch of kids in my house while I'm visited by the leaders of several military organisations" explained Jake, "Oh, alright, well, do you have any idea where we could stay for a while?" asked Eddy, disappointed at his rejection from Jake.

"You could stay at one of the places in the slums" suggested Jake, "Yeah, I suppose. But I don't like hanging around that place for more than a few hours" replied Eddy, "what if I gave you some new weapons? I got a shipment just the other week" said Jake, this brightened Eddy up considerably, "Sounds like a plan" said Eddy smiling, "great, wait here" said Jake as he walked off to collect the weapons. "The slums? Eddy, I hate that place" said Edd almost whispering, "Don't sweat it Double D, I know some people down there, besides most the stories you hear are just made up to scare away rich brats" said Eddy reassuring Edd, "Most of them?" said Edd stressing the "most" "What about that one about mutant crocodiles?" asked Edd, "Megadiles, yeah they're real, but as long as you stay out of the under-works you won't seem them ... much" replied Eddy, muttering the last part.

Edd's jaw hung loose, he was about to protest but Jake returned carrying three crates in his arms. He led them into the dining room and placed the crates on the table. He picked up a crowbar and opened each one. Out of the fist crate he took out a pistol, "The Jericho: A new pistol from our friends at Wartech, uses magnum slugs and can penetrate through four people if they're lined up, getting stuck in the fifth person. Out of the second crate he took out a TMP, "The Wartech TMP, latest model uses explosive rounds and normal rounds, fires up to thirty rounds in five seconds" and finally, from the third crate he took out a mini-gun, "New, shrunken version of an old gun, it's designed for personal use, it uses a smaller caliber round and isn't as heavy. But the user has to carry it's ammo in a backpack" Jake finished.

"So, who gets what?" asked Jake looking at the Eds. Eddy grabbed the TMP and began examining it, smiling joyfully. Ed took the mini-gun and began to rotate the barrels, he released the trigger and allowed the barrels to stop, Ed hugged the death machine and said "My precious". Edd took the only remaining gun, the Jericho, he wasn't big into guns like the other two were.

"Great, well, If this is all. I guess we'll be leaving you" said Eddy as he turning around, "Oh, just hold on a sec, I need you to deliver some stuff to a colleague of mine. He lives in a complex opposite the machinery plant in the slums" said Jake, "Yeah, sure as long as it isn't heavy or big" replied Eddy, Jake handed Eddy a small box, no bigger than a matchbox. "Just give him this, he has already paid in full" said Jake.

"No problem" said Eddy, he pocketed the box and walked out the door, Edd and Ed followed closely behind him.

(A/N) That's the end of that chapter, sorry it took so long, I've been busy with exams and stuff. Read and review and I'll post again real soon.


	5. The Slums

First of all, I must apologize about the massive delays between updates on all my stories, it's all about when I'm feeling inspired and right now I'm in a sci-fi mood, so hopefully I'll advance this story a bit before I loose interest again.

Chapter 5: The Slums

The Ed's left Jake's apartment and stood in the quiet hallway, "I can't wait to use this" said Ed looking at the hand-cannon he was holding, "Yeah, we have to conceal that somehow, no way the security drones would let you pass with that" said Edd, "Not a problem Double D, we'll just use the smuggling chutes" said Eddy smugly, "The what?" Edd asked raising an eyebrow, "Haven't you ever been outside? Jeez you're such an FNG at this" Edd said, annoyance in his voice and his face in his palm.

"Well I'm sorry Eddy, I don't associate with the criminal element" replied Edd in a mock apology, "Please Eddy explain to me what the hell you're talking about and also, anything else that I'll probably need to know" Edd continued sarcastically, "Good to see you've finally taken an interest in my hobbies, Double D" was Eddy's happy reply. "Ok, the smuggling chutes are long vents that fall all the way down to the Slums, a few of my associates use them to get stuff either to Upper or Lower Stratnigrad, they're little elevators, too small for a person, but big enough for a package, which is their usual cargo." explained Eddy, "Only problem is there are only a few chutes in the whole city and only one that works, which isn't good 'cause it's on the other side of the city. But the one near here will do fine, as long as you don't mind getting that gun a bit scratched."

Ed hugged his gun, "I don't want to hurt it" Ed protested, "Too bad Ed, you can get it back in a minute when we reach the slums." Ed mumbled something under his breath, "Follow me, the chute is just behind this building." Eddy led the way to the far end of the hallway and into a janitor's closet, Eddy moved some mops and stamped the wall behind them, the small section of wall separated from the rest and Eddy removed it revealing a number pad.

He punched in a few digits and the entire back wall of the small room opened up. Nothing special was inside, just a small, off-white concrete room with a large, square hole on the far wall.

An ominous sound was coming from the hole, like it was inhaling air continuously, Edd stepped forward and looked down the hole, nothing but all consuming darkness. Eddy cracked a glow-stick he had in his pocket and dropped it down the hole, it fell silently into the dark abyss.

"No way the gun will survive a fall like that" said Edd as he watched the glow-stick disappear. "It'll be fine, you can't see it but the edges are padded and there's a few bends quiet far down that'll slow it enough to make sure it doesn't break." explained Eddy, "Come on Ed, down it goes" said Eddy pointing at the hole, Ed let out a sigh and approached the hole, "See you at the bottom" Ed muttered to his gun before letting it fall into the inky blackness, then Ed removed the ammo pack from his back and dropped it down too, it fell down without a sound.

The three friends left the building and out into the plaza, "Right, we gotta get down to the slums and find this guy" said Eddy, removing the small box from his pocket and looking at it, "Hmmm, Where are we going to sleep tonight, the adrenaline is beginning to wear off and I'm getting tired" said Edd checking his watch. "There's a place down there with some beds we could use, won't cost much, but it's kinda grimy" said Eddy as he led the way to the Descender.

Eddy led them through the streets and down an alley, dumpsters and empty boxes lined the alley, a rat scurried across their path as the three boys walked down the alley, they turned a corner and were greeted by a solid concrete wall with a single, dirty door. Eddy tried to open the door, but it was stuck, Eddy stood back and gave the door a kick and with that it burst open, revealing a dingy corridor with a florescent bulb flickering near the end. The walls were stained a pale yellow. Edd tried to ignore the smell that hung in the air like an invisible fog. Eddy led them round the corner at the end of the corridor and into a much larger room, it was a balcony over looking the floor below, a square section of which was fenced off. Two fences running parallel to each other only half a foot or so apart. The fences seemed to serve no purpose, they were waist high and were enclosing nothing.

The three boys made a loud clanging noise as they descended a flight of metal stairs. The noice echoed through the large room, which remained eerily quiet. "How old is this place" asked Edd examining some rust on the fences that seemed to serve no purpose, "It was here before we were, that's for sure, but I'm not sure when it was built, probably around sixty years ago, when they began building Upper Stratnigrad, or some time after. They stopped using it commercially three years ago, when the mayor passed that law where you had to have a Pass if you weren't a citizen of the Ups (Upper Stratnigrad)" explained Eddy looking around the decaying room.

The large square room had little in the way of features, just the balcony encircling it and an office that over looked the room. It's large one-way glass stuck out next to the off-white that made up most of the room's paint work. On the ground level, beneath the office was a small console on a column coming out of the floor inside the fence area. Eddy opened a gate in the fence and stepped inside, followed by Edd and Ed.

Eddy pushed a button on the console. Nothing happened. Eddy pressed it again, still nothing. "Generator must be out again" said Eddy, "Ed, go sort out the generator, I'll reset it" ordered Eddy, "Righto Eddy" said Ed giving a fake salute, Ed turned around, hopped the fence and disappeared into one of the two doors on this level. "Come with me Double D" said Eddy pointing at the office "We gotta reset the Descender from up there".

Ed walked along a dimly light corridor and into the generator room. A large fan that was inside the wall, behind a wire mesh was attached to a cylinder with a several large wires coming out of it. The cylinder sat upon a concrete pedestal with a console attached. Ed examined the console, the small screen read "Fault detected. Coupling 3", Ed opened a slab of metal from the cylinder, inside were several dozen wires and few electronic components that played some vague, however important, role. Third wire from the top left was fried, not a problem, Ed tugged the wire next to it and it was removed from it's top socket, Ed removed the problem wire and replaced it with borrowed one.

Ed pushed the reset button on the console and the room went dark along with the entire facility. Meanwhile....

Edd and Eddy walked along the metal balcony that led to the office, Eddy opened the door and entered the dank room, the air was moist and the smell of a developing fungus was lingering in the air. There was a wooden desk with an old computer sitting on it, no chair though. Eddy tapped a button on the computer and it awoke, just a white screen awaiting instructions. "Ed'll turn the power off in a sec..." Eddy began before being interrupted by a sudden darkness, the whole room was dark except for an area near the window where light from some outside source shone in.

"Three...two...one" Eddy whispered to himself, the screen of the computer came back on, a black screen with green letters asking "Complete System reset?". Eddy tapped the "Y" button and light was restored.

The trio met back at the fence, "Ok, for real this time" said Eddy as he pushed a button on the console, the floor jolted. Then it began to slowly descend. The two fences parted as the Descender slowly lowed itself to the Slums. After a few metres the Descender sped up and darkness enveloped the Ed's as they left the light of the facility above them. Ed looked over the edge of the giant elevator down at the slums, they were at least 300 meters above them, the lights shone up, making for quiet an impressive view, not as good as seeing a major city from the sky, but you could see every pathway, make out individual buildings and see in far better detail. None of the surface high-rise buildings existed down here, the tallest building Edd could see was four storeys high.

Edd turned his attention to the massive columns that held up the city, they were huge, large enough to be buildings themselves, each had pipes of varying sizes running down them like vines. They led up to total blackness, no light shone down from the city above, Edd could just make out the underside of the city, huge support beams and pipes criss-crossed underneath. They were approaching the bottom now, the facility down here was little more than a building with some maintenance gear in it. The trio left the building onto the cold, dark streets. There were no roads or cars down here, just wide walking paths and alleyways.

"Well I'm about ready to collapse. What you think about getting some shut eye?" asked Eddy rubbing his eyes, "That sounds good" Edd replied, Ed let out some noise that sounded in the positive. "Good, just this way" said Eddy pointing down a alley.

Eddy led them to a place called "Danny's", the entrance was down a short flight of stairs. "Danny's? Sounds friendly" said Edd noticing the neon sign above the doorway, "It isn't, Danny's an Ex-merc and has a habit of stabbing people who don't pay up on their bets" said Eddy. "Thanks for the heads up" replied Edd, now a lot more worried about sleeping here. They entered the hovel of a bar and were greeted by ... no one.

The bar was empty, not surprising given the time, Edd looked around his new surroundings, The floor was made of wooden panelling, except for a few areas that were missing planks that had been filled with concrete. The wood was ancient, pale grey and shrinking. They creaked loudly when stood on. The walls were mostly plastered, but large chunks revealed the brinks behind the plastering, graffiti covered a lot of the walls, especially around the tables in the corners. The chairs were torn and had bits of stuffing coming out. A neon light flickered in one corner, a few florescent lights hung from the ceiling, but didn't do much to help the grim appearance of the whole place.

Eddy went over to the bar and lent over, looking for something. "Hey Phil where are you?" Eddy yelled over the counter, a fat man with a neck beard came out of a room in the back, "eh? Who's calling me?" groaned the fat man, obviously drunk. "It's Eddy, from the Academy" Eddy said waving his hand to get Phil's attention, Phil looked at Eddy and after a short delay ... "EDDY! Good to see you man, where you been I haven't seen you in years" said Phil coming over to Eddy and grabbing him in a hug over the counter, "thanks Phil, but it's only a few months" said Eddy, trying to pull his head away Phil's chest. "Oh, well it felt like such a long time" Phil blubbered drunkly. "Yeah sure, me and my friends need a place for the night, got any spare rooms" asked Eddy, "yeah sure, there's a few rooms free, got a whole bunch of you kids coming here all night, what's up?" asked Phil, "Other kids? Like who?" asked Eddy interested in his drunk friend's muttering, "I don't remember, some girls, some guys I don't know" muttered Phil, "Ok, never mind, we'll just find those rooms then" said Eddy pulling away from Phil.

Edd found the rooms to be, joyfully, not as bad as he thought. The mattress was old, but not in such a bad condition that Edd couldn't sleep well enough. The walls were bare brick and the floor, mostly concrete, but Edd was too tired to really care about the deco.

The next Day...

Edd was awoken by the sound of rushing water, he looked around the room as the memory's of the previous night flooded back in. The source of the noise was a pipe running down the side of the wall, it was shaking as the water fell through it. Edd got out of the grungy bed and put his shoes on, he'd slept in his clothes with the exception of his shoes. He went next door to Ed and Eddy's room, Ed was up, but Eddy was still sprawled out on his bed, mouth wide open. "Morning Ed" Edd greeted, Ed yawned, "Morning Double D, what a night eh?" replied Ed, "yeah, I'm still exhausted" Edd said rubbing his tired eyes. "It reminds me of that time I camped out for two days waiting for Day of Death 2 to come out. That was such a great game"said Ed holding back a yawn. "Will you two shut up" came a voice from the pile that was Eddy. "Just get up Eddy, we gotta find that guy your friend wanted us to give that thing to" said Edd annoyed, prodding Eddy's leg. "Gah, your worse than an alarm clock" grumbled Eddy as he got up and put his combat boots on.

The three walked into the main room, there were a few people here and there, still too early for the main crowd. But in one of the corner booths Eddy saw a sliver of blue hair, he moved round to get a better view of the person and to make sure he wasn't hallucinating from lack of sleep. He moved round and saw the two Riverdale girls. "Hey" said Eddy punching Edd lightly in the arm, "Look who's found their way down to us". "Nazz and Marie?" Edd squinted to make sure, "Your right, it is them".

Eddy approached them, backed by Edd and Ed. "Now what are two girlies like you doing in a place like this?" Eddy asked in a deeper voice than usual, the girls looked up, Marie noticed Edd and stood up, "It's you guys, when did you get here?" she asked, happy to see a familiar face. "Last night" said Eddy sitting down next to Nazz. "More like early this morning" Edd corrected. The girls shuffled in to make room for the Eds. "How'd you end up down here?" asked Edd "After the shit hit the fan at the academy we went out into the city and found a park to sleep in, but then we remembered you guys talking out the Descender, luckily for us, the janitor of some hotel was on his way down here as well, so took us down with him. This place was the first place we found with beds, so we stayed here, there was some drunk guy who said we could" explained Nazz. Ed nodded quietly, "Yeah, well who wants a drink? Coffee? Booze? Booze n' Coffee" offered Eddy standing up "You can have anything, the guys know me" Eddy offered again, "I'll just have a cup of coffee" said Edd, "Me too" said Marie. "Ed? Usual" Eddy asked, standing at the bar "Yup" Ed replied happily.

Eddy jumped over the bar and into the back room. "So what do think about those terrorists that attacked us last night?" asked Nazz, "Well they said they wanted to help us, but then why did they shoot at us." said Edd, "Maybe we should find them and ask them ourselves" suggested Nazz, "It could be a trap" said Marie, countering Nazz's advice, "I might be able to find out more about them, then make a decision" said Edd, "I'll see what I can find out".

Eddy returned a few minutes later with the drinks. They talked for a while and the conversation eventually turned to their biomods. They each explained their modifications, Eddy finally asked, "So why's a rich kid like you got such weird mods? I mean a leech drone? That's rare even within the army". "Well" Marie hesitated, "My parents are sort of obsessed with my security, they wanted me to be almost bullet proof, but I wasn't the right type for actual bullet-proofing. I chose the eye mod though" she explained. The conversation continued around biomods, eventually ending up on the history of biomods, how the earliest one were really gory.

After an hour of idle chit-chat, Eddy realized that he was behind schedule, he still had to deliver that little box. "Well, ladies I would love to stay and continue this pointless banter, but we gotta go" Eddy said, pointing his thumbs to the door. The Eds got up and began for the door, Edd turned around and quickly said "We'll be back in an hour, meet us back here" before being dragged oput the door by Ed.

(A/N) Well that's the chapter. Sorry for the immense delay, hopefully the next chapter will be out sooner now that I have a plan for it.


	6. The Mod Freaks

The Mod Freaks

The air outside was cold, but not just cold, it had lifeless feel. The air was stale and the thick fog made breathing feel like inhaling water, making their lungs heavy.

"Where did your friend say the delivery point was?" asked Edd looking around the grim under-city. "There's a building down that path that'll take us to an apartment complex, he's in room 23 on the third floor" Eddy replied pointing down a path, which after a several meters disappeared into the fog. "I don't remember that much detail, how'd you know what room it was" Edd raised an eyebrow. "It's right here, on this little card on the box" said Eddy showing Edd the card. "Ok, let's just deliver this thing, it's cold out here" Edd rubbed his arms.

The Eds walked down the foggy path, down a flight of steps and into a wide, open area. There was another flight of steps going down under a tall building. To the right of the boys was an old warehouse, it's metal sliding doors were rusted and appear to have not been opened in years. A crane hung over the doors, a chain hanging from the crane swung silently. The whole area was eerie and quiet. The buildings had no lights on and the only light came from a flood light high above the sleeping down. "That's the place" Eddy pointed up to the solemn building. A window on the top floor emitted a faint glow, hidden behind several meters of thick fog. Down the dark steps led to a dingy elevator which took the three boys up to a silent corridor. The morning light cast a blue tinge throughout the long hallway. The hallway felt haunted, dust floated in the air and the floor creaked under foot.

They approached Room 23 and knocked. A voice from the other side responded "Enter" the voice was deep and unnatural, as if it had gone through a computer first. Eddy opened the door slowly, it creaked loudly. Inside were two men, or at least they used to be men. The beings in the room were only a fraction of what they used to be. Skin replaced by a nano-suit, limbs replaced by cybernetics, organs removed once they became useless. The masks that these cyborgs wore removed any trace of their previous humanity. Their masks were different, but both looked like gas masks. One had two pipes coming out of the side of his mask, going over his shoulders into his back. His eyes were hidden behind reflective glass sockets.

The other had what looked like bulging arteries going up his ares and legs and an extended respiratory piece and clear eye sockets. The black nano-suits were similar to the one Marie wore when she first arrived in Stratnigrad.

Eddy stepped into the room, less than a meter from one of the super-modified humans known as the Genetoo. Eddy could see the skin around the eyes of the closest Genetoo, it was burnt, black with patches of red, the eyes were being slowly taken over by the dark blue veins on either side of each eye. "Umm, we were sent to give you this" Eddy said uneasily, holding out the small box, the cyborg reached out and took the box. He opened it, revealing a slightly smaller glass box, suspended inside was a microchip, it was hovering in the centre, even though there was nothing holding it there. "Very good. Our transaction with your associate is now complete" the Genetoo said after inspecting the microchip.

"What's that for" Eddy inquired looking at the small piece of plastic. The cyborg looked at Eddy, "It is a micro-processor, the most advanced we have seen. We have no information on where it was built or who invented it" the computerised voice of the Genetoo said, "It came to our attention when an old base in the Southern Deserts of Gondwana was discovered. The team that discovered the abandoned base disappeared, when there was a cave in at the entrance. We have no agents posted there so we could not investigate it ourselves. Fortunately, one of the members did not go the second expedition and was saved. But the team removed very little from the base on the first go, so there was almost nothing for us to study, except for a fragment of micro-processor" the mono-toned voice of the Genetoo explained. "What happened to the last researcher?" Eddy inquired, "There was a sand storm that destroyed his camp-site along with a ,supposedly, cybernetic skull." The genetoo continued.

The Eds left the apartment and back into the cold corridor. "So, What now?" "I don't know Double D, why don't you suggest something. I've been guiding you guys around since yesterday" Eddy said folding his arms, "Let's pick up the girls and explore" suggested Ed, "Sure, why not" Edd said, "Led ahead Ed".

So Ed took over Eddy's position and the three boys returned to the bar to pick up Nazz and Marie. Now the modified teenagers walked through the quiet streets of Lower Stratnigrad. They were walking past one of the massive columns, a large pipe was running down the side, it was shaking violently and hundreds of litres of water poured down it into the open sewer grate underneath, the surrounding area was flooded, water reaching up the ankles. The street was still quiet and darker than usual, the light a kilometre above was flickering on and off, mostly off.

"I would hate to live down here" said Marie looking at the lonely street stretching out before them. A few houses down, a man came out of his home and walked past the teens. "I like it down here. It's peaceful" Ed said, Edd and Eddy raised an eyebrow at their friends out of character statement "and the monsters in the sewers" Ed quickly added. "Monsters?!" Nazz and Marie said, quickly turning to Ed for an explanation. "Not really monsters, but pretty monstrous. Giant crocodiles called megadiles live in the wide sewers beneath the city, most are about 20 feet long with massive, razor sharp teeth. Then there's the rats, at least three feet long, disease infested." explained Ed, moving his hands to show sizes. "Upper Stratnigrad is looking far more welcoming every second" Marie said, thinking about the giant rats lurking beneath her feet.

"I see you've come down to our level" came a female voice from behind the teens. They spun round to see three people standing just a few meters away. They were wearing the same outfits as the GLA who attacked the academy. Dark red hoods covered their faces, "Actually we were more interested in why you tried to kill us" Eddy said firmly stepping forward. "Yes, we must apologize for the reckless action taken by our Captain, he thought that driving you out by force would be the best test of your metal, he can be a bit forceful at times" explained the woman, she lowered her hood revealing a pale, tired looking face. "Our leader can explain everything in much greater detail than I. If you would please follow us to our headquarters we could set you up with a hot, hot shower and clean clothes." the female stood aside pointing in the direction of the old warehouse.

"How do we know this isn't a trap?" Edd asked, "You have our word as soldiers" one of the men behind the lead female said. "We promise you no harm, only answers" the woman assured. "Excuse us for a second" Eddy said, then turned around to speck with his cohorts, "Whatta ya think? Can we trust 'em" "I think we should, otherwise coming down would be completely pointless" Marie said, "They said "Hot Showers" I need one of those, seriously" Nazz added, "Why not, they can tell us what happened to the others" said Edd, "Ok, Ed? Any objections?" Eddy asked looking at his slow, but lovable friend. Ed shook his head. "Ok then" Eddy turned around and said, "Lead the way".

Short chapter, but the next one will be longer, hopefully.

Thanks for reading.


	7. We are the GLA

We are the GLA

(A/N) Sorry it took so long, but I have just moved continent so try to understand, provided you care in the first place. Anyway, enjoy the latest chapter.

The teens followed the GLA members through the damp, cold streets of Lower Stratnigrad to the abandoned warehouse.

The sliding doors were old and rusted, the lead GLA member opened a fuse box on the left of the doors, hidden behind a dumpster. She opened it revealing a key pad, she punched in a series of numbers and the door began grinding into place. The metal squeaked as it rubbed against the concrete wall of the warehouse. Inside was a small, empty room with a second door, with a second key pad. They all entered the room and the female GLA member punched in another series of numbers, the first set of doors closed behind them, then after a brief delay, the second pair opened.

The warehouse was wide and open, in the centre of the room was a generator, it sat still and quiet, it's dull green paint peeling off in patches. Windows high on the wall were covered in moss and let in little light. In the corner was an office, elevated above the rest of the floor, other than that, the room was pretty barren. They were led to the office, which had a door that was unlocked by one of the male GLA members, behind the old door was a stair case spiralling down to another large room, but this one was much more populated. There were several doorways into smaller rooms and hallways.

A stage occupied the top wall of the rectangle shaped room, on the stage was a podium with a speaker attached. The wall behind the stage was covered by a large banner of the GLA symbol. A shield with a globe on it with two spanners crossing behind it and the letters G.L.A burnt into the shield, under the globe. On the other end of the room were several old wooden tables and chairs. The wall near them was lined with counters, stained and old. Two men were playing cards on one of the tables, a woman was cleaning a gun at another. But other than that, no one was around. "Is it me, or does this hole town seem like a ghost town" Marie whispered to Eddy, "It's only 7:34, people won't be out on the street for at least half an hour. Work hours are different down here, you wouldn't want to be caught in a crowd down here anyway, people try to keep to themselves." Eddy whispered back.

The group was guided to a room near the stage. The room was small, it had a small GLA banner on the wall and a desk in the centre, a computer hummed on top of the desk. "Sir, The Wartech students have arrived" said the female GLA member, the man sitting behind the desk looked up, the man looked worn, not old, but old beyond his years. He had a short beard that was greying half way down. His short, crew-cut hair was greying too.

He stood up, "Thank you Lieutenant Jakobe." the man saluted the female, she saluted back then turned and left with her two male followers.

"I'm glad to see you finally arrived, we were starting to think you wouldn't show" The man said, smiling as he stood up to greet his guests. I am Commander Isaac Davidson, leader of the Markarth (The northern continent) branch of the GLA"

"Yeah, well your invitation really got our attention, what with the guys shooting at us and all" Eddy responded, crossing his arms, "If you wanted to meet us so badly why did your guys try and kill us?". Eddy eyed the Commander suspiciously.

"Yes, I must apologize for that. My men got a little over enthusiastic. They mistook you for security and thought you a threat. But their intention was never to hurt you. Besides, you shot back, several of my men were badly injured and we lost two of them. So consider that a warning, some of my men might be a little hostile to you" The Davidson spoke with a serious tone to his voice.

"In your broadcast you said Wartech lied to us. About what?" Edd asked, trying to draw the topic away from Eddy who would probably just add to the hostilities, given his past record of grudge holding.

"A lot. Trust me." The man replied plainly, this annoyed Edd thoroughly, but he didn't show it.

"Details?" Nazz spoke, asking the question that Edd was about to, "It's a fairly bold statement to make without having proper evidence".

"Why do you think Wartech invests billions of Kredits in it's bio-modification department? Why did they implant you with all that fancy tech?" The Commander asked, he sat back down and reclined slightly in his chair.

"To make us better, smarter, faster, stronger" Eddy answered, "We go on to become the heads of things, like the police or army!"

"And why should Wartech offer you so much and ask so little in return?" The man asked calmly. Eddy didn't have an answer, neither did any of the other kids. "The truth is; They train you to become tomorrows warrior, when the shit hits the fan anywhere in the world, who do they send in? Sure, the average soldier is sent in to deal with a small uprising in Gondwana or put down a riot here in Markarth. But, when Wartech's assets are in danger, specifically the one's they don't want people to know about, they send in their little slaves" The man spoke coolly.

"We aren't slaves!" Eddy said angrily, "We can do whatever we want, if we were slaves we wouldn't be here right now, would we?!"

"You're all slaves, you just don't know it, nor would you ever know it. You all have had neural surgery right?" the man touched the back of his head, where his head met his neck.

"Yeah, so? It's just a mod control system" Eddy said, confused at the sudden change of subject.

"That's what they told you. It is in fact two things, a mod controller as they said. But it is also a total systems override. When activated, you lose control of yourself, your brains higher functions go into a chemical coma, while they rest of your body is left to accept what ever prompt it is given by that little chip. They've probably done it to your several times and you couldn't have known." As the man spoke, the children felt the scars on their necks as the man continued, "Ever woken up one morning felling tired, muscles aching, really bad headache, probably remember some vague dream? That's the after effects of the override".

"You're lying! How the hell do you know all that?" Eddy demanded, his arms fell to his sides and his hands rolled into fists.

"Because it's happened so many times before. Wartech has been using this technique ever since the first bio-mods were developed." The Commander pulled out a folder from beneath his desk and opened for the children to see. On the front it said "System Override Module VII" "Inside you'll everything you need to know about what that chip does. And also the beginning of a mystery that I've been on for a few years now".

"Mystery? Like what? Why Wartech would do this?" Edd inquired as he picked up the folder.

"Just look at the dates, if you know your history, I'm sure your curiosity will be tempted" Commander Davidson spoke, grinning as he did so. "Now, please, I have a lot of work to do and little time to do it in. You'll find my Lieutenant waiting outside, I'm sure she'll be more than happy to show you around".

The children left the office and were back in the large room. Lieutenant Jakobe was talking to another woman, not far away. She noticed them and joined them, "How did your meeting with the commander go?" she asked.

"He gave us homework" Eddy said annoyed, Edd frowned at Eddy then turned to the Lieutenant.

"I have some stuff to read, is there a place I do so in peace?" he asked. Jakobe nodded and led them to a hallway, that had several doors to bedrooms.

"You'll be staying here until you decide to leave. Try to keep the noise down, the other bedrooms aren't too far away and the walls aren't sound proof. You can choose which rooms you want. If you need anything else just ask me, I'll mostly be in the conference room or my room, it's the third on the left in the hallway right of this one." The lieutenant explained.

"I wan to read this as soon as possible, so I'm going to stay here awhile" Edd said, holding up his folder.

"We're exhausted, so we're just gonna stay here too" Nazz spoke for Marie and herself.

"Well screw guys, Me and Ed are going out, huh Ed? Eddy said, "I want to get my gun back Eddy, let's go get that please, please please" Ed begged.

"Sure sure lumpy, I just have to do a few things first" Eddy replied, silencing Ed's cries. With that the group separated. Eddy and Ed returned to the cold streets of Lower Stratnigrad while Edd, and the girls stayed in the fairly warm bunker that was the GLA Headquarters.

Edd was sitting at the his desk, reading the file. He had spread out some of the sheets and photographs across the desk and was reading each one thoroughly. To anyone not in the know, the lines of words would have little sense, but Edd was able to make out a basic understanding what they were talking about. One sheet was a time-line of the development of the chip, from proto-type to the current model. This is where Edd's interest peaked.

"Eh? The first proto-type was put into use in 2210? But the first modified human was only revealed in 2249." Edd thought, he reached for a report on that model. "Model R has serious flaws and is prone to malfunction, patients often regained conciousness or fell into permanent comas. A more stable chip MUST be developed before the "Dead Men" project can begin."

"What the hell is the "Dead Men" project" Edd said under his breath, as he read on, he found numerous mentions of the "Dead Men" project but no explanation as to what it actually was, only that it was cancelled in 2240.

"Dead Men Project is now officially cancelled, all data on the project must be destroyed and the patients put into deep stasis. Storage of the patients must be carefully done, if one of them comes out of stasis the damaged chips will not work and the fail-safe is useless."

After that no more mention of the project comes up in any of the documents. "The hell is the "Dead Men" project, I have to ask the Commander" Edd thought. Edd briskly made his way to the Commander's office.

"Commander Davidson, I read the file and you were right. The dates don't make much sense but, what I really wanted to know was what the "Dead Men" project is" Edd said quickly.

The Commander smiled and reclined in his chair, "Please, take a seat" the commander motioned towards and old chair in the corner, Edd dragged it into place and sat down facing the commander.

"The Dead Men Project" he began, "Is a project by Wartech that I have been investigating very closely for the past several years. My investigation has led me onto several, very interesting, paths. All of which have led to dead ends. I found out a lot, but nothing that can get my very far."

"What did you find?" Edd asked, his curiosity was palpable.

"Wartech were developing a super soldier, I don't know the details but it was a forerunner to the biomods you have, but far more arcane. Unlike your mods, fitted around the body parts and fuelled by nanites, their limbs or organs were torn out and replaced by cybernetics. Skin twisted over their new metallic bodies, a truly hideous sight. We found this in the dune desert of Gondwana" Davidson said, he typed a few words into his computer.

There was an audible click from somewhere in the room, but Edd couldn't place it. The commander stood up and moved the GLA banner out of the way, revealing a safe. He removed from this safe a human skull. He placed it on his desk, facing Edd. The teen was amazed by what he saw, the skull was defiantly human, but the jaw bone was replaced by a metallic one. A portion of the right eye socket was missing and several wires were hanging from it. Upon closer inspection Edd could see dozens of scars on the face bones and more on the brain case.

"This looks like it could be from a Genetoo" Edd thought out loud, "This doesn't seem to out of place among them, but the Genetoo presence in Gondwana is still small and they don't hang around the desert much, not enough business".

"It _could_ be Genetoo, only problem is that it's too old. The Genetoo only really came into existence 20 something years ago. This dates back to the Wars of Formation, in case you didn't pay any attention in history that was in 2235." The commander said, contradicting Edd's statement.

"I loved history lessons" Edd said, annoyed at the commander insulting his intelligence. "But anyway, maybe this was an early prototype, they Genetoo didn't just appear the way they are now" Edd offered.

"No, they only started bone replacement a few years ago. And the Genetoo didn't _have_ a prototype, they just advanced with the technology, a bunch of guys who couldn't stop modding, getting whatever biomod they could get, legally or otherwise. You see the question that has been bothering me for years now." the commander returned. "However, it has come to our attention that more data on these "Dead Men" may have survived. A week ago we learnt where all this research had taken place, in Research Bunker G13. High in the hills of Gondwana. It was sealed and abandoned during the Wars of Formation when the a group of rebels tried to over take it. If anything can answer the question of this skull, it's in that bunker".

"How are you going to get it?" Edd asked, getting an idea of where the commander was leading.

The commander chuckled to himself, "That is why I brought you here, my young friend" The commander looked at Edd.

"Yeah, somehow I knew you wanted us free of Wartech for a reason other than just because you're such great guys" Edd said, sarcasm in his voice. "So how do we get to Gondwana, Wartech are looking for us and I doubt they'll just let us visit Gondwana after we've been missing for several days."

"We have a jet that'll take you there, right to where you want to be. I'd like you to head out as soon as possible, but I know you've been through a lot and if you wanted to stay a while to recover that's perfectly acceptable." The commander explained.

Edd realised how hungry he was, tired too. But he was a mood for learning, he wanted to gain more knowledge or at least pass on some of his own. "Thanks, I think I'm going to find some food then retire to my room for most of the day" Edd said, standing up and leaving. It had a few hours since Ed and Eddy had wondered off and Edd was beginning to worry, his worry was quickly removed when his phone went off in his pocket. It was Eddy calling.

"Hey Eddy, where are you?" Edd spoke into his phone.

"Hey, Dou.... D. Me and .... his minigu... and some do... .... back in a few..." Came Eddy's fractured response. Edd could only make out a few words over the static.

"I can't hear you Eddy, something's wrong with the signal" Edd spoke loudly to make sure it got through.

"The sig... always crappy......here Don't wor.....back soo" Eddy assured. Edd got the basic idea. Eddy and Ed had got Ed's gun and something else and would be back soon.

Edd arrived at his room and sat down, his quest for food had turned up nothing. It wasn't long until Eddy showed up, barging into Edd's room holding a box of food, junk food mostly, crisps (potato chips), soft drinks, sweets and chocolate.

"Where did you get all this stuff Eddy?" Edd asked looking over the food that he thought impossible to get in the Slums.

"Don't you pay any attention to what I say?" Eddy asked annoyed.

"I try to only catch the important bits, the rest usually is total trash" Edd mocked.

"Yeah, whatever sock-head. As I have said on many occasions: I have friends down here that can get you anything" Eddy replied, shaking a packet of crisps at Edd, "So try not to be so ignorant of my friends other than Ed and yourself or I might leave you out of future supplies" Eddy opened a can of drink and gulped it, "Damn that's good".

"You going to share any of this with the girls?" Edd asked, "I'm sure they'd be grateful".

Eddy rubbed his chin for a second, "The ladies do love a man with stuff and the ability to get more stuff. But they'd better be grateful, this stuff doesn't come cheaply down here".

So they group moved into the girls room to share their bounty of junk foods. Edd explained what the commander wanted of them, the girls were hesitant and took a little convincing from Eddy, who jumped on the chance to see the world. Ed was happy to follow his two best mates where ever they led him. The day past by quickly and before they it, it was night.

The commander had briefed them all on the mission basics and that they were free to leave whenever they chose, but did imply that sooner was better. The Ed trio had all the gear they needed in their packs they had lugging around for the last two days. The girls were fitted out with a few spare weapons the GLA had, two Socom pistols.

They sat in the conference room playing cards with some GLA guys, when a sweaty soldier ran past them and into the Commander's office. Only a second later, there was a loud boom that rocked the room. It came from the gate at the front, an alarm sounded and a red light started flashing. The GLA guys jumped up and quickly ran to get their weapons, as did the teens. The commander's voice sounded out over the speakers...

"We are being attacked by Wartech soldiers, everyone get to defensive positions ASAP. Wartech students come to my office immediately".

"That's us" Eddy said hearing the announcement. They grabbed their gear and, along with the girls arrived at the Commander's office. He was sweating a little and typing in several things on his computer, he looked up as the group arrived.

"Good, you're here. Looks like we'll have to cut your stay a little short. The soldiers are here to get you and arrest my men. You have to leave _now!_" The commander said franticly. "Follow me" he ordered. The teens followed him down several hallways, behind them they could hear gun shots as the Wartech and GLA soldiers met. They arrived in an underground hanger, instead of a runway there was a long tunnel that curved up slowly. A jet was waiting for them, it resembled a private jet but it's wings were folded in further.

"Lieutenant Jakobe!" The commander yelled to the pilot, "Get ready to take off now, take them to Gondwana Base H". Several more shots came down the hallway, "Dammit they're getting here fast" thought the commander. A small group of GLA soldiers came down the hallway, one came over to the the commander, breathing heavily.

"Commander" the soldier saluted, "The Wartech troops have taken most of the base. We need to get you to safety". The other GLA troops fired down the hallway, then ducked as a volley was returned on them. One bullet hit a soldier in the leg, the soldier fell down on one knee, but ignored the pain and continued to fire.

"Don't worry about me, just hold off those bastards for a few more minutes" the commander ordered, he had to yell over the loud gun fire just a few metres away. The soldier nodded then returned to his small group and began firing. A GLA soldier was shot in the head, blowing a large section of his away away, blood spattered on the floor and his body fell to the ground with a thump and splat.

Ed walked over to the down soldier and took his place, he began spinning his mini-gun then squeezed the trigger. It made a sound like no other gun, it was more like a chain-saw, the Wartech soldiers were hiding behind the corners, but Ed's mini-gun blew chunks out of the wall and hit most of the soldiers. The hallway was quickly filled with dust from the demolished walls, a puff of red dust signalled that a soldier had been hit, a section of him minced by the volume of ammunition. A stray shot was fired by one of the survivors, it ricocheted down the hall and hit Ed in his right pec. The force surprised Ed, but little else. Ed ignored the pain and released another volley, a few more puffs of red smoke. The loud chaining of Ed's gun finally stopped as he ran dry of ammo.

"There you go guys, that should make it a little easier " Ed said cheerfully walking back to join his friends. The GLA soldiers just gawked at Ed, surprised how he could just kill several people and still be blissfully happy.

The commander hurried the teens into the jet, which quickly took off. It wasn't flying, but driving down the tunnel at immense speed. The entire crafty was shaking as it rocketed down the long tunnel, finally, a light at the end. The craft blasted out of the hole at the end, into the night sky, it roared upward to cruising attitude above the clouds. Eddy was trying to hold onto his lunch, his face a sickly green. Nazz had already lost hers into a bag thoughtfully placed on her seat. Ed wasn't so lucky and had thrown up onto his lap,

"Eww, Eddy I gotta change. This is just too much" Ed complained as he felt his own sick soaking through his clothes. "Hey, I don't remember eating that!" Ed was examining his vomit and it's contents, "Hey! I wondered where this gum went" Ed picked out a small pink blob of gum from his vomit and put it back into his mouth.

"Ed! That's frikin disgusting man!" Eddy yelled as he watched Ed do this. It finally pushed Eddy's stomach contents too far and Eddy threw up into his bag. "This is the foulest flight I have ever been on. I'm walking home once this is over with, you bastards" Eddy said as he cleared puke from his mouth. "Never again, never again, never again" Eddy kept mumbling to himself.

(A/N) Well, there it is. It's been months since I updated, sorry. But I just moved to Australia and gotten my computer back, so I'll update more often now, especially now that I'm finished with school and have a lot of free time on my hands. I hope you prefer the new writing style, it should make things a bit easier to read and it helps the dialogue flow easier I find.

Let me know what you think.


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